MapleStory Guide: Basic Thief Guide

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Latest Update (7/26/10): I changed the description of Steal and altered the bandit skill builds to better reflect its improvements by the balance patch. Also, I fixed all of the old links in the “Useful Links” sections.

Introduction

The authors of The Chief Bandit Guide, The Str Bandit Guide, Common Scams and How to Avoid Them, Smartguy's Comprehensive Assassin Training Guide, Basilmarket’s Beginner Merchanting Guide, and various other guides have joined forces to bring you our next epic guide!

It has recently come to our attention that The Thief FAQ isn’t up to date anymore and as such, we decided to join forces and produce a guide meant to replace it. This guide is meant as a quick reference for bandits, assassins, chief bandits and hermits on skill builds, type of bandits and assassins and training locations. An equipment section would be too long and complicated, but we will link to other guides that explain such material. Also, because nothing is certain in 4th job, we won’t add a 4th job section.

If you can’t find the answer to what you’re looking for in this guide, please check out the guides we link to at the end of our section. You’re very likely to find your answer in one of those guides.

Assassins use claws to throw stars. They are a ranged class with high avoidability, mobility and accuracy, and tend to be stronger than most other jobs in 1st and 2nd job. The DPM (damage-per-minute) of Night Lords (4th job assassins) against single monsters falls behind several other 4th job classes, but overall, assassins are pretty powerful. They have a bad reputation of being kill-stealers, though.

Different types of assassins

Regular assassins add 2 dex and 3 luck every level until level 40, then 1 dex and 4 luck until they obtain their last weapon. Regular assassins are noticeably weaker than similarly-funded dexless assassins until a certain level around 4th job (level 120), though the exact level is heavily debated. With the introduction of Reverse Lampions (level 120 weapons that increase in attack after prolonged usage), most regular dex Night Lords are definitely able to overpower their dexless counterparts by mid-4th job.

Dexless assassins, which are actually more popular than regular assassins, have 25 dex and don't add anymore. Instead, they set all of their skill points into luck, because luck is what determines the attack power of Lucky Seven, the main attacking skill for assassins. Dex is required to wear regular thief equips and weapons, so dexless use common equips and special claws instead. Dexless assassins are consistently stronger than "regular" assassins in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd job. The Night Raven Claw, the most powerful dexless claw, is usually enough to keep most dexless Night-Lords stronger than regular Night Lords in early 4th job, too. However, they are eventually overpowered by their regular counterparts.

Low-dex assassins are assassins who have lower dex than required to wear weapons their level, but make up for the gap by wearing armors that add dex. They usually have 60-100 dex, but wear the same equips as regular assassins. Low-dex is a popular choice, because dex equipment is cheaper than luck equipment- what regular and dexless characters wear. Low-dex assassins are usually stronger than regular assassins, but rarely as strong as dexless ones.

Night Walkers are a Cygnus Knight class that strongly resembles assassins. For more information, refer to the Cygnus Knight forum.

First Job Skill Breakdown

Keen Eyes- Increases the range of your throwing stars. When maxed, Keen Eyes will double the distance you can throw. This skill is absolutely critical, since range is a key factor in training an assassin. 5/5

Disorder- Stops a monster from attacking you. The only place you might EVER use this skill is at Crimson Balrog. Otherwise, this only acts as a gateway to Dark Sight. 1/5

Lucky Seven Your main attacking skill for 110 levels. Get it. It's important to note that Lucky Seven's damage formula is based COMPLETELY off of luck; dex, strength, and intellect serve absolutely no purpose here. Your damage range, affected by dex, doesn't matter to this skill. 5/5

Dark Sight Allows you to avoid the physical attacks of monsters. However, you can't attack or use potions when in Dark Sight, and you can still get hit by magic attacks. Still, Dark Sight allows you to go places few others can go, opening up various training possibilities (i.e. Crimsonwood Keep, Junior Newties, etc.). Maxing this skill is a good idea, since Haste will only work with Dark Sight when it is maxed. It's not absolutely necessary, though. 4/5

Double Stab -For bandits only. And some bandits don't even bother to get it anymore. 0/5

Second Job Skill Breakdown

Claw Booster -Increases attack speed of claw. With Booster, a normal-speed Garnier (one of the slowest claws in Maplestory) throws faster than even the fastest claws out there. This makes it very important for training. However, level 1 Claw Booster increases your attack speed just as much as level 20 (maxed) Claw Booster, so maxing Claw Booster isn't absolutely necessary. Extra levels only increase the amount of time Booster lasts after cast. If you choose to max Claw Booster, you will have to take 2 ability points from either Drain or Claw Mastery. 5/5

Claw Mastery -Increases accuracy, the number of stars you can hold in one set, and the stability of REGULAR attacks (not Lucky Seven!). The accuracy and stability boosts aren't very important, but increase in the number of stars you can hold is slightly useful. 3/5

Drain -This skill throws a star that, when it hits a monster, will heal your HP by a certain amount depending on how much damage you inflict. This is a huge potion saver in 2nd job. With Drain, you often won't need HP potions at all. However, it can become annoying to use in late 3rd job and 4th job. If you choose to max Drain, you will have to take 2 ability points from either Claw Booster or Claw Mastery. 4/5

Endure -Heals your HP and MP faster when you're on a rope or ladder. This is basically just another throwaway skill. The only reason you should set any points into it is so you can get Drain. 1/5

Haste -Increases your speed and jump. This is your only party skill, and is invaluable for both training and movement in general. 5/5

Third Job Skill Breakdown

Alchemist-Increases the amount of HP and MP that regular potions heal by 50% and the amount of time buff potions last by 50%. If you use a potion that heals 1000 HP, Alchemist will make it heal 1500. This saves you quite a bit of money, and is great when you're bossing with Onyx Apples. But unless you train with Onyx Apples, it's more beneficial to max Flash Jump or Avenger first. 4/5

Meso Up-Increases the amount of mesos dropped by monsters. This skill doesn't help as much as you'd think it would, so most people put off maxing it until after they've maxed more vital skills. 2/5

Shadow Partner-Allows you to throw one extra star every time you attack and two extra stars every time you use Lucky Seven. Stars thrown by Shadow Partner are exactly half as strong as normal ones, meaning you get a 50% boost in damage. Shadow Partner requires one summoning rock to summon, so costs can add up, but this skill is still super important. 5/5

Shadow Web-Holds a group of (non-boss) monsters in one place for a short period of time AND knocks off about 3% of each monster's HP. This skill is usually useless for training, except possibly when you're rebuffing in front of a mob of monsters. However, its HP drain effect is occasionally useful, so it may be worth getting once you've maxed more vital skills. 2/5

Shadow Meso-Another throwaway skill. Shadow Meso is a waste of money and has few practical purposes. It can be used as a knockback skill (since it ignores weapon defense) and serves as a substitute attack when you run out of throwing stars on a boss run, but neither application makes this skill definitely worth maxing. 1/5

Avenger-An attack that hits up to 6 monsters at once. The hermit's only mob attack, Avenger is inflexible but does pretty good damage compared to mob attacks of other classes. And when compared to Lucky Seven on groups of 2 or more monsters, Avenger blows it right out of the water. It also provides some much needed knockback in maps with high spawn rates of lethal monsters. 5/5

Flash Jump-An active skill used when jumping, Flash Jump increases the range of your jump exponentially. This lets you move way faster and is very useful in certain training maps, such as Himes and Windraiders. However, level 1 Flash Jump costs 60 MP per jump, so it's pretty expensive at first. 4/5

Choosing Your Stars

When buying throwing stars, quantity>quality. It is always better to have many mediocre sets of stars rather than a few really good ones.

Most 1st job and 2nd job assassins need 5-10 sets of stars. Once you get Shadow Partner and Avenger in 3rd job, you will need at least 15 sets of stars to train for more than an hour without recharging.

Types of Stars
Icicles are the best buy for unfunded assassins. They hold 800 stars a set and can be found for less than 50k a set in the FM, while similar types of sets only hold 500 stars and cost twice as much.

Both Crystal Ilbis and Balanced Furys, the two strongest stars in Maplestory, are ridiculously expensive. Crystal Ilbis require increasingly expensive iTCG materials to make, and Balanced Furys require a whopping 100 Black Crystals and increasingly rare Taos to make. Both throwing stars should only be used if you're super-rich. Hwabis, which have the same attack as Ilbis, also cost a ridiculous amount of money, but are weaker than both Crystal Ilbis and Balanced Furys. They are usually used as a showoff item.

Fourth Job

There is no definitively better skill build for fourth job. Fourth job builds are too heavily influenced by uncontrollable variables like the price and availability of skill books, and individual priorities (since you’re probably never going to reach level 200, you won’t be able to add enough points to every skill).

Bandits use daggers as their preferred weapon. 2nd class bandits are powerful but physically frail 1v1 melee attackers, like rogues in most MMO(RPG)’s. Chief bandits on the other hand, are more well rounded characters; not being physically weak anymore, but neither being very strong. Shadowers are some of the best tanks out there as long as they can take a hit and live, and they are really good against multiple monsters but don’t fare as well as other classes in 1v1.

Different types of bandits

Luk bandit: Aka the normal bandit. The normal build is adding 2 dex and 3 luck every level until level 40, then 1 dex and 4 luck until you want to cap your dex. Beats the Str bandit till at level 80, becomes equal to it until level 120 and then finally loses out after that. Weaker than the dexless and fandit until level 100 or so. You can become a Str bandit later on by adding an appropriate amount of str.

Str bandit: Pretty much the same as a Luk bandit, the only differences being that you’ll wear different weapons, have access to Khanjars and that you’ll put points into Str. There is less of a standard build for Str bandits, but your Str needs to be your level – 10 until level 70. Make sure it doesn’t get over that number. So generally, you add 1 str, 2dex and 2 luk per level until level 40, then 1 str, 1 dex and 3 luk until you cap your dex and str. Weaker than the Luk bandit until level 80, equal to it till 120, and superior after that. Weaker than the dexless and fandit until level 100 or so.

Dexless bandit: much like dexless assassins, they’re early powerhouses but lose their power as new weapons become scarcer. Unlike what most people tell you, you don’t need to be funded to be a good dexless, as long as you know where your priorities lie. I actually recommend starting out with this if you’re not certain what build to follow because it’s such a blank slate build, you can become any other type of bandit by adding the appropriate amount of ap into dex and/or str. The build is to get your base dex up to 25 and then put the rest of your ap into luk, very straightforward. Superior to other builds till level 100 or so, but can still be very powerful after that if you have billions (10+) of mesos to spend on equips

Fandit: the only significant difference between this and dexless bandits is that fandits use the Fan as their final weapon. This means you’ll need to get 35 str from either equips or ap to be able to wear it.

Sindit: basically a bandit that maxes Lucky Seven and Keen Eyes in first job, instead of Double Stab. It allows for faster training in first job and the first 10 or so levels of second job. As a result, you’ll end up "losing" 8 sp to other first job skills like Darksight and Nimble Body. Don't worry about that though, you have more than enough free skill points in second job to make up that loss.

First job skill breakdown

Nimble Body - Increases your avoidability and accuracy. It's never REALLY useful, but it’s a free 20 avoid and 20 accuracy and passive to boot. You should max this.

Keen Eyes - Increases the range of throwing stars. A must max skill for sindits, and if you want to be able to double as a ranged attacker for some pq’s later on, this skill must be maxed. If you don’t plan to be either, this skill is useless though.

Disorder – De-aggros a monster. More useful for bandits than for assassins because we are already short ranged, But overall still not useful. Level 3 is a prerequisite for Dark Sight, get it to level 3 and leave it.

Lucky Seven – not a useful skill if you aren’t a sindit. Still, it’s more powerful than Double Stab.

Dark Sight - Allows you to avoid the physical attacks of monsters. However, you can't attack or use potions when in Dark Sight, and you can still get hit by magic attacks. Still, Dark Sight allows you to go places few others can go, and opens up various training possibilities. Maxing this skill is a good idea, though not absolutely necessary.

Double Stab - For pure bandits only. It faces little use after you’ve hit 3rd job and it’s weaker than Lucky Seven, so a lot of people decide to max Lucky Seven in first job instead of Double Stab. Still, this skill isn’t all bad and if you want to be a purist, this is the skill to go.

Second job skill breakdown

Dagger Mastery – Increases your minimum damage by quite a margin and gives you some extra accuracy. The accuracy isn’t really needed, but the increase of minimum damage will speed up training speed considerably.

Savage Blow – Your main attack in second job and you’ll be using this until the end of fourth job. Max it.

Haste – Increases your speed and jump. It is invaluable for both training and movement in general.

Endure – Increases the amount of hp and mp you regenerate. Not particularly useful, because you need to stand still to have the hp regeneration, but the mp regeneration is always on. The mp regeneration comes down to about 9,000 mp per hour. While this may sound like it’s much, you’re likely burning up 130,000 mp per hour. It saves very little money and as such isn’t useful, so you probably won’t be maxing this.

Steal – A skill that lets you attack and stun up to 4 monsters, and also gives you a chance to steal something off a monster. Compared to the mob attacks of other classes, Steal is relatively weak. However, it’s still a mob attack. That fact, coupled with its stunning ability, makes Steal relatively useful for knocking back monsters.

Mastery first versus Savage Blow first

Sometimes a point of discussion amongst bandits. Mastery first gives you a noticeably more power than savage blow first in your 30’s, but is significantly weaker than savage blow first in the early 40’s. It’s your choice except if you’re a sindit, of course. Sindits are forced to go savage blow first no matter what.

Third job skill breakdown

Assaulter – Single target attacking skill with a transporting effect. Can outdamage Savage Blow per hit, but not in DPM, used mostly for the transporting effect in moving around. Essential.

Band of Thieves – Your third-job mobbing skill. Get it.

Meso Explosion – Most powerful skill in the game. Also by far the most expensive one.

Mesos Guard – your first defensive skill. When you turn it on, all damage you receive will be halved in return for some mesos, but this price is always lower than what it would’ve cost you to heal the you would’ve taken otherwise.

Chakra – Heals a heap of hp in return for some mp. Takes kinda long to cast and can only be used if your hp is below 50%, so it isn’t exactly a great skill. Serves little purpose, but some use it when they’re hunting in maps far below their level.

Pickpocket – When you activate this skill, there will be a chance that every attack that hits a monster will make it drop some mesos. Pets don’t pick up the coins this skill drops. Can be used to great effect in combination with ME in 3rd job, because it delivers a significant boost to your training.

Shield Mastery –This skill increases the def on your shield by a certain percentage, but most thief shields have very little def to begin with, meaning the increase will be very small. Secondly, def is crap. Nobody cares about it. Probably the most useless skill in maple history.

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